Identification and Characterization of Complex Biological Signals

Our work is a contribution towards understanding the biology of mobile genetic elements (MGE). These constitute a significant proportion of most eukaryotic genomes. We demonstrate the presence of signals at the sites where mobile genetic elements preferentially insert in several genomes. These signals have been mapped into a general machine learning protocol. A web enabled computational protocol for the analysis of mobile genetic elements and their insertion sites, and a resource base containing several genomes,termed ELAN has been developed. This suite of tools for analysis and a relational database which contains over several hundred gigabytes of information are in the public domain. MGE insert strategically, selecting their sites carefully without disrupting exonic regions in the human genome but insert multiple copies in intronic as well as intergenic regions. More details can be found at http://nldsps.jnu.ac.in/elan.html